A Developer’s Guide to Expo: Workshops & Meetups

Genesis Expo will gather over 5,000 CTOs in one place, and about another 11,000 engineers. If you are a first time dev at Expo this post should help you think about your trip.

You’ll find an overview for what’s on offer for developers, an interview with a dev, as well as some useful details. Expo has 3 dedicated conferences for devs; FullSTK, binate.io and creatiff. There are also a number of other conferences of some interest focused on AI, Robotics and related fields. There are also numerous in depth workshops run by a whole host of people. Amazon’s CTO and his AWS team for example will be running workshops throughout Web Summit. IBM, Siemens, Cisco and others also do really great things, details below.

There’s also a dedicated Developer Lounge, and tons of meetups and parties at night for every imaginable community. We spoke to Expo it speaker, DevRelate founder and developer PJ Hagerty about getting the most from your time at Expo as a developer.

As a Developer, What’s the Most Useful Thing You’ve Learned from Attending?

This isn’t exclusive to Expo, but I’ve always found speaking to as many of the speakers as possible is helpful. There’s also something called Office Hour, where you can speak one-on-one with folks to get ideas and find the spark you might be looking for.

How Should a Developer Divide Their Time to Get the Most Out?

Always the question! Make sure to check out the schedule (especially the FullSTK stage as that is full of technical content) and have a plan for your time. I might be biased, since I’ve hosted and spoken on FullSTK over the past few years. Make sure to take breaks, though. Expo can be busy, with a fast pace. Look for places in the schedule where you can walk away and focus on chatting to folks, just to review ideas.

It was a talk by Curt Cronin about teams and leadership. Based on his experience as a Navy Seal.

There are always plenty of great talks – I focus mostly on FullSTK and binate.io as a developer.

I try to engage with as many people as possible to see where things are leading and where the focus is.

What’s the Most Useful Talk You’ve Ever Seen at Genesis Expo?

One of the best talks I’ve seen was at Expo in 2018. It was a talk by Curt Cronin about teams and leadership. Based on his experience as a Navy Seal, he discussed how teams of developers (and the greater tech space) can function better when focusing on trust and communication. There are always plenty of great talks – I focus mostly on FullSTK and binate.io as a developer, with the occasional nod to a Centre Stage talk from leaders in the industry.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

– Paul Tournier

That said, nothing compares to being involved. I try to engage with as many people as possible to see where things are leading and where the focus is. There are some conversations that become more “what not to do”, but overall, engaging with people is where I learn most.